By Radarr Africa Business Desk
LAGOS, October 28 (Radarr Africa) – Nigeria climbed seven places to 11th in Rand Merchant Bank’s (RMB) 2026/27 ranking of Africa’s most attractive investment destinations, the largest upward move on the continent, BusinessDay reported.
The ranking comes from RMB’s “Where to Invest in Africa 2026/27” report, which was released on Tuesday. Nigeria was 18th in the 2025/26 edition, after falling nine places, and it remains outside the top 10, the newspaper said.
The report ranks 31 countries across 20 metrics. This year it adds a resilience and vulnerability framework, which separates an economy’s ability to withstand shocks from its exposure to external pressures, according to BusinessDay.
Seychelles is first, Mauritius second and Egypt third. Morocco overtook South Africa for fourth place, with South Africa falling to fifth. Cote d’Ivoire rose from 16th to eighth in 2025/26 and then to seventh in the latest edition, the report showed.
Morocco’s economy grew 4.9% in 2025, against 1.1% for South Africa, BusinessDay reported. RMB credits Morocco’s automotive manufacturing, export diversification, infrastructure investment and foreign direct investment (FDI).
RMB linked Nigeria’s adjustment to the removal of the petrol subsidy in May 2023 and the unification of foreign exchange windows the following month. “The adjustment has been painful, but the direction of travel is increasingly legible,” RMB said in the report, according to BusinessDay.
The bank said Nigeria’s reforms are putting the economy on a more sustainable course, the newspaper reported.
On prices, inflation peaked at 34.8% year-on-year and eased to 15.2% by the end of 2025, the report said. Food inflation fell to 8.9% in January 2026 but rose to 14.3% in March.
Real gross domestic product (GDP) grew 3.9% in 2025, up from 3.4% in 2024. The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) projects growth of about 4.5% in 2026. GDP rebasing raised the estimated size of the 2024 economy from about $188 billion to about $243 billion, according to the report as cited by BusinessDay.
Capital inflows were an estimated $23.2 billion in 2025, nearly double the $12.3 billion recorded in 2024. Portfolio investment made up 85% of the 2025 total, or $19.74 billion, while FDI accounted for 4%, or $923 million, up from $675 million in 2024. Inflows reached $10.4 billion in the first quarter of 2026, the report said.
Portfolio investment therefore accounted for the bulk of the 2025 inflows, with FDI a much smaller share, according to the figures BusinessDay reported.
RMB said investment attractiveness increasingly depends on an economy’s capacity to withstand adversity, BusinessDay reported. It added that investors may disagree on the pace of the recovery, but that the direction of travel is becoming clearer.
Separately, at the 32nd Nigerian Economic Summit in Abuja on Tuesday, executives from JPMorgan Chase and Chevron told a panel that investors want stronger legal guarantees, consistent policy and better security before committing long-term capital, BusinessDay reported in a different article.
Dapo Olagunju, managing director of JPMorgan Chase Nigeria, said the reforms of the past three to four years have had a significant impact, according to the newspaper. Jim Swartz, chairman and managing director of Chevron Nigeria and Mid-Africa, credited the Petroleum Industry Act and presidential directives with improving the investment climate. He said: “Knowing that we will have a secure operation is very important.”
Kendra Gaither, president of the U.S.-Africa Business Center at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, called Nigeria’s goal of investment-grade status by 2030 promising. She warned against using lower risk premiums as a reason to borrow more, BusinessDay reported.
